“It’s time!” Ari whispers to herself.

  She keeps her feet on the ground, clenches her both hands, holds her bow and arrow tightly, and points at the weakness of the Pan, which is now completely in her sight. Ari feels her breath, heart rate and the direction of the wind in the most accurate way. At this point, if Ari takes a single wrong aim, everything will be down the drain. She carefully takes a deep breath and holds it, slowly drawing the bow into position. When she’s sure of all the calculations about the firing line, Ari immediately lets the arrow out. It darts through the air, with a trail of green energy followed behind like a comet’s tail, which stretches beautifully across the gray forest background.

  “Wotttttt”

  The arrow with the greatest energy so far flies and heads straight to the Pan that is surrounded by magic flames.

  “Skrrrrrr”

  Without deviating any millimetre, Ari’s archery skill is spectacular. The arrow aims straight at the death spot, so suddenly and intensely that Pan can’t resist. The Pan reacts violently and unexpectedly to the fatal blow. With a large amount of damage accumulated during the “latency time”, the arrow that pierced Pan’s body from back to the front made a long incision from its “back door” to its mouth.

  Finally, the arrow tore up the Pan’s body and came out from its bloody mouth full of sharp teeth. The mixture of the thick red liquid and the blue energy is thrown up. The energy keeps streaming under its bulging body under high pressure. Before it could even howl…

  “Slam!!!”

  The flow of energy within has exploded, and its body blasts into thousands of pieces scattered everywhere. Tons of dust fly in all directions. After that, the space on all sides suddenly falls into strangely quiet. The terrifying creature that had gone mad before had become a senseless pile of burning fleshes.

  Ari’s arrow has successfully finished off the big Pan.

  Witnessing the Big Pan defeated and the even more amazing thing is that each person contributed to destroying it together. Everyone feels emotional right now. The doctor’s voice is getting trembled, he is covering face with his hands, and exclaimed: “I can’t believe that we did it.”

  Skipping Nic’s expressionless face, Rin and Duong both show their joy, Rin closely puts her arm around Duong’s shoulder:

  “The Pan Lord was defeated, thanks to the magician you invited. Ari, you did a great job too, great shot!”. As saying this, she’s shaking Duong’s shoulder excitedly.

  Yet in response to Rin’s praise is Ari’s inexplicable silence. Contrary to everyone, her face shows doubt. Rin immediately realize her friend’s strange attitude and quickly asks Ari: “Ari, what’s wrong, aren’t you happy?”

  On the side that everyone can’t see, Ari’s face changes from suspicion to worry, and she says slowly: “Yes, we took it down, but… that’s not the real Pan Lord!”

  Ari turns her gaze forward and nods strongly, confirming a more horrifying truth. Maybe by being sensible or experienced, Ari seems to have realized something. She knows that, for a long time, this smell has made Gai Lan forest strange, a smell full of menace and danger of the giant creature lurking in the dark.

  Her conclusion chilled everyone else.

  [The Lord

  “Pan Pan is an evil creature living in tropical sub-temperate areas, living in tropical and sub-temperate areas. They live in populations of hundreds of individuals. Their features include: having scales arranged along the whole body, they are herbivores and sometimes eating meat.”

  – Mahaf’s Hunting Expedition-

  For the basic Pan, when it’s standing, it’s about 1 meter in height. Forelimbs and claws are well developed and they often live in the pack of Pan. When being in danger, they often make noises to call their pack.

  A basic Pan evolves into the big one, which is about 2.5 meters in height. Its long tail is a dangerous weapon with hard scales layer on the back and it can move flexibly.

  Pan Lord is the only one commanding the pack. Its scales layer is very thick, the tail is short and the limbs are small, it moves slowly in a normal state, but it can roll into a ball at a speed of 60km/h.]

  The feeling of shock after Ari’s words has not passed yet, and everyone doesn’t even have time to ask any questions, suddenly from the cliff, coming up the big sound “Rattle” like thunder. From the place where the sound comes from, the ground is continuously shaking and the soil and rocks pour down from the top with a loud thump.

  RUMBLE!

  The sound is getting more and more terrifying. At this time, all five members feel a chill tingle along their spines. They are all standing still, incredulously watching in the direction of the vibration. Soon after, from the cliff, the ground rises a layer of dust. A cascade of dust and boulders descend below. A few seconds later, their legs begin to shake, an earthquake is coming.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Slam! Slam! Slam!”

  The harsh noises of bumping, crushing and cracking are getting louder and louder. Then, from above, where the dust storm has poured, the first traces of the tremor emerged. A huge black mass revealed itself and started swirling madly. Having a predetermined direction, that massive black mass is rushing towards the five people with tremendous speed.

  It looks like a black thorny roller sent from hell, with the ability to flatten and exterminate every living creature which is on its way. That deadly mass pulls a demonic, long, black streak on the ground and mixes with dirt and rubble.

  Everyone is petrified right now. All their eyes are widely open. Those expressions were as if they were facing the God of Death. Rin can’t hide her astonishment, she says in a loud voice:

  “What’s that?”

  Looking at the scene in front of him, Duong’s heart is full of insecurity. The excitement and expectation for the reward at the beginning vanished without a trace. The murderous rolling ball is in front of his very eyes. He catches a glimpse of future promises no matter how great they may be not as big as his life. Right now, running is the only thought living in his mind, but running still is the best way to rescue himself.

  They all quickly turned around to run for their lives to avoid dying under that rolling thing’s track.

  “Roar… roar..”

  The ball that rolls with the momentum of the cliff whirls around and plunges as it wants to crush the bones of the whole of them into small pieces. It rolls away frantically, leaving a long trail of dirt like a waterway on the ground.

  The more that thing rolls, the more destruction it causes, which is a devastatingly destructive power.

  However, the trouble is the thing in front of them is completely sentient, even this giant black monstrosity knows how to prejudge and intercept them from afar. The sphere doesn’t change direction to Ari’s team, it keeps following the momentum and rolling onto the giant rock directly above the five people. Beneath that, the horse is leading the group, they’re running until they are all out of breath. Their remaining feelings now are just full of terror. They already anticipate that this kind of situation could happen, but it is far beyond what they can think about.

  The thorny sphere continues to dart down, then lands on the path where the ants are running in a stampede. When that giant hits the ground, a huge BOOM sounds. Thick layers of dirt and dust have blocked the path and a 5 meters wall of dust is built up to surround 5 people in a flash.

  They all stop, their palms are sweating a lot and their hearts are also beating faster than ever, but everyone is trying to keep calm to reassure themselves.

  The whole group of small people have just run away. Until directly facing the dust wall, they are suddenly bursting with enthusiasm, overcoming their fears. All of them calmly turn in one direction and wait for the next movement.

  Sand and dust are flying everywhere, covering the group. Duong reaches out to cover his face with the hem of his shirt, but he narrows his eyes slightly to see what is in front of him. Not much later, the dust gradually disperses, and the black shadow gradually appears. Facing Duong’s group now is a creature of an enormous size, which is way too bigger than the opponent the group has just defeated. It is standing tall, blocking the path, to the astonishment of Ari, Duong, and the other three.

  After the dust layer dissipated, huge blue eyes begin to appear, and the scale armor and the thorns covering its body has all grown to the roughest and sharpest.

  The thorny ball has a diameter reaching more than 10 meters, like a giant steel roller full of thorns, it appears dangerously behind the dark dust. The five people with their mouths widely open, despite the smoke and dust, are rushing into their throats. A special oversized creature appears at such close range, making everyone have to stand and watch with their shock is the certainty.

  After all, this is the real ruler of the Pan pack. It is the lord of the pack, the one hiding behind all this time, and the target that they have been aiming at from the beginning.

  “The real Lord is standing in front of them”